Archive for September, 2011

Sunday 25th Sept 2011 saw approximately 1000 competitors head down to the RAT RACE event village in Potters Field, London. This was a longer and more challenging race. Done on foot and bikes, the racers had to cover a lot of London. This time I had the car; Cliff drove and I navigated. When we passed Rat Race competitors on their bikes, it was a good opportunity to lean out of the passenger window and capture the action while moving. Communication was key between me and cliff so I didn’t fall out or take out any cyclists.

Alongside the cycling and running, the racers also kayaked, abseiled, climbed and did an assault course. It was very hard to keep up with the racers, despite having the car, but we had the traffic and congestion to contend with, as well as having to take the main routes and park the car and walk to the checkpoints where the challenges were taking place.

One of the highlights was that the BBC were filming Ben Fogle competing in the race. He is currently filming a series, in conjunction with Lonely Planet, ‘A Year of Adventures’ and RAT RACE was included. There have been many books about a year of adventures, but this is the first time that it will be televised. Lucky for Ben as he gets to compete/complete all these adventures, something that I would love to do. The BBC were very helpful as they were our big clue to finding Ben and tracking him down. They did have three camera crews, two in vans and third on a motorbike. Also with Ben was another competitor who had eyes on him the whole time, feeding back to the camera crews where they were and where they were next headed. I did ask if I could jump onboard with the team, but unfortunately they didn’t have enough room, or that was a polite way of saying ‘no’. I think it was the latter!

Anyway, here is my selection of photos, while Ben was an interesting focal point, my brief was to capture the RAT RACE, and so I shall present it that way too. (I am never easily starstruck!) Enjoy!

Rat Racers plan their route on maps in front of the Gherkin.

Waiting is always the worst part.

Shot from a moving car. I missed, but I still like it.

Grit and Determination!... and the urge to help haul him up by his beard. Good restraint on my part.

Enter the Mean Streets. An endurance challenge in London city centre held by RAT RACE Adventures. Starting from the Tower Bridge, competitors were given the signal to disperse and take over London. Their objective? Complete as many checkpoints as possible in the 2 hour time frame. You think that sounds simple? Wrong….the checkpoints were scattered around the city centre. None of the CP’s were in any logical linear line. You had to head to one and then navigate to the next, taking any route you fancied.

This race was on foot, so I was tasked with covering it on my trusty steed! That was a challenge in itself as I don’t know the streets of London. So my map was clamped between my teeth (this makes breathing a tad tricky…must buy a proper holder) and a next to useless free sat nav woman talking through my ear phones on my iPhone.

There was another photographer, Cliff Hide, but he was tasked with getting the press shots, whereas I was getting all the new material for Rat Race promotional and advertising shots. I headed to The Arch climbing wall and grabbed a few shots, lighting was tricky, but I captured a cool shot of a racer with his map clenched between his teeth. Then it was a brisk ride to Trafalgar Square where I had to Hunt The Rat – a cockney speaking chap in a rat costume. He was very tricky to find as he had been placed in the middle of a music festival that was being held there too.

Next was Russell Square, where the CP was in the middle of the fountain. Great opportunity for getting shots of racers getting wet, but I was bitterly disappointed when it was just a piddly floor fountain that spent most of its time dribbling water, not gushing it out. After some time the fountain picked up some height, and with a bit of encouragement I persuaded some of the racers to get drenched. It was fun to shoot and the racers appreciated the attention.

Back on the bike I raced back to Potters Field to the event village to capture the racers crossing the finish line.

“Close up head shots of people with beautiful faces spotted along Orchard Road.”

Came across this video and I just wanted to share it. Simple but very effective portraits with great use of short depth of field. The video below is a compilation of Danny’s street photography portraits. You can view his website here.

While his title says Portraits of Strangers, he has, I feel, managed to make the portraits come across as if they are his good friends. There is nothing distant about these portraits. He makes them seem very approachable and this is helped by the use of a wide aperture, such as 1.8.

One Day On Earth are asking everyone to participate in their filming event to take place on 11/11/11. It also co-incides with remembrance day, so some great opportunities to film. Check out their website – http://www.onedayonearth.org/

Watch this video from the same event last year, but on 10/10/10. (Can you see the pattern emerging?) There will only be one more event unique like this in 2012 – 12/12/12. After that when will they do it?

So on 11/11/11, with whatever filming equipment you have, be it phone, camera, or a RED ONE. film something, something that is close to your heart, and submit it.

I was lucky enough to assist the very talented Andy Barnham on an editorial for The Rake, a gentleman’s fashion magazine.

“The Modern Voice of Classic Elegance”

This shoot took place in Repton Boxing club, London, a real down and out training ring with real character and heart. “No Guts No Glory” is at the core of this club and it shows too.

This shoot “plays upon the theme of two sharp-dressed east London ‘firms’ pitting their champs against one another! Tailoring and contenders – the mood’s a little bit Savile Row, a tad squabble and row. “

The experience of assisting on an editorial was amazing. I got to learn how all the different elements of a shoot is brought together to create the final outcome. Assisting is hard work and you have to be on your feet. You have to anticipate the photographers every move, be ready with the next piece of equipment without him even asking for it. You have to be ready to step up to the plate. One prime example of this was on this particular shoot. Only one boxer turned up, so the shoot was going to fail at the first hurdle. We got on with getting the shots that didn’t require the boxer and the shots that only required one boxer (see final shots below), but one of the main shots was two boxers fighting, to help complete the whole feel of the story.

To maintain the authenticity of the fight, we needed another boxer that was in the same weight category as Duds (who was also great to work with). The production manager was on his phone, hunting down a boxer, even one of the models knew of some boxing friends, but none were able to step in. Then all eyes fell on me….yes me! I stood there not quite registering what everyone was thinking, but then it clicked. I was the same weight, build, height and probably the only one willing to get half naked. I shrugged my shoulders and thought why the hell not. You only to get one chance! So the kit was off and the shorts and gloves (and make-up…thanks Piero) were on.

Stepping in the ring, was to say the least, a bit daunting. I didn’t even get a chance to warm up. Dudds was in training and having watched him demolish a punch bag, I wanted to throw the towel in there and then. I didn’t even get to throw my first punch and I was already on the ground knocked out…..well actually I was instructed by Andy as the first shot he wanted was of the losing boxer KO’ed! That bit was easy…just lie there and try not to smile/laugh.

The next shot was an action shot. I was up for a bit of gentle sparring, but the production manager, for health and safety reasons (or the certainty that I would have been hospitalised) was having none of it. So we repeated the same move over and over until Andy was happy with the shot. The full article can be read here.

It was a great day and we got to do it all again the next day in the London Palladium for a different story, but that’s for another post.

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